LUX

"Lux", the fourth studio album from the Spanish performer, Rosalía, is clearly the true definition of world music. This collection of orchestral pop, which took almost three years to complete, boldly expresses ideas involving feminine transformation and spirituality through a variety of languages and musical styles. In the process, Rosalía has crafted an album that is cutting edge and rhythmically complex.

Before she even really began this project, Rosalía spent an extensive period of time learning how to properly sing in various dialects before using Google to help translate her lyrics into each of the fourteen specific languages while also utilizing professional translators. The eighteen tracks on "Lux" (which means "light" in Latin) are separated by four musical movements with many songs inspired by a female Saint.

Recorded in London, Barcelona, Seville, Saint-Rémy, Miami and Los Angeles while featuring production assistance from some of the current top producers working in pop music today like Caroline Shaw, Dylan Wiggins, Noah Goldstein, Pablo "El Guincho" Díaz-Reixa and Pharrell Williams, "Lux" is truly a transcendent work of art. In this era of largely disposable, facile pop music, what Rosalía accomplished with this progressive album through dedicated innovation and incredible endurance is an impressive feat, proving she is an artist on a completely different playing field.

The first single, "Berghain" (which contains lyrics in German, Spanish and English) is about losing one's self to a lover's toxic behavior and features the Icelandic pop artist, Björk and American musician, Yves Tumor. The song was well received, charting high on the pop charts throughout Europe and even appearing on the US chart. Rosalía has recently announced the Lux Tour which will begin in March and will have her traveling across the globe through September to promote the album.

RANDOM SIGHTS + SOUNDS

After being named the season six winner of "American Idol", Jordin Sparks began a whirlwind of a pop music career at only the age of seventeen. It started with a self-titled debut album in 2007, which sold over a million copies and featured two top-ten singles; "Tattoo" and "No Air", a duet with Chris Brown, to appearing on stage (co-starring in the Broadway musical, "In the Heights") and screen (making her film debut in "Sparkle", the 2012 musical remake that features Whitney Houston in her final film role).

Now at the age of thirty-three, Sparks is married and a mother of a five-year-old son. Her career might have cooled down a bit but she's certainly not out of the game. A new single has been released, "Call My Name" which is a mature, intimate r&b ballad, far removed from the sweet pop-soul from her early days. And the music video features a more sensual side of Sparks (who appears with her husband, Dana Isaiah in the steamy clip) than we have previously seen from the singer. This is the first preview of music from her upcoming fifth album which is due out early next year.



Here is some new music to put a spotlight on from social media personality, Jessie Woo; queer electro-pop artist, Bronze Avery; the legendary soul-hip-hip queen, Mary J. Blige; dance-pop star, Dua Lipa and a charity single from Björk featuring Rosalía with proceeds going to combat open-pen fish farming in Iceland.

It's been about eight years since Gossip, the indie rock band made up of Nathan Hondeshell, Hannah Blue and Beth Ditto, called it quits. But time can change perspectives and the trio reunited to do a tour to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their 2009 breakthrough album, "Music for Men". From that gathering on the road, Gossip began to explore the idea of working together again as a band. Enlisting their "Music for Men" producer, Rick Rubin, who encouraged the reunion, they went to on record from thirty to forty songs together. This has led to their sixth album, "Real Power" due out in March. The first single, "Crazy Again" picks up where Gossip left off, with a quirky, electro-pop ballad enhanced by Ditto's unusually muted yet controlled vocals.

And I'm sad to announce that Jean Knight, best known for the sassy, 1971 hit, "Mr. Big Stuff", passed away from natural causes on November 26th at the age of eighty. The New Orleans native began her career finding some local success with several recordings before attracting the attention of producer Wardell Quezergue in 1970. Knight recorded several songs (which included "Big Stuff") with him, but no major labels were initially interested in releasing these demos. But when King Floyd's song, "Groove Me" (also recorded during those sessions with Quezergue) became a number one soul hit in early 1971, a producer at Stax Records remembered another song that Knight had recorded from that time. "Mr. Big Stuff" also went to number one on the r&b chart and reached number two on the pop chart. The song sold over two million copies and Knight went on to receive a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Feamle Vocal Performance. Knight would record several well received albums following this success, but "Big Stuff" would remain the biggest hit of her career.

ATOPOS

After five years, the brash, melodious voice of Björk has returned to captivate us with new music. "Atopos", which is a Greek word for "strange", is the first release from the Icelandic singer's forthcoming tenth album, "Fossora" due out on September 30th. As to be expected from her previous idiosyncratic work, this intriguing song is a strange jumble of sounds and thoughts. With an experimental techno beat disrupted by violent bursts of six bass clarinets, "Atopos" loosely interprets the concept of atopy which is trying to describe emotions that are inexpressible in words. The music video for "Atopos" is a visual wonder with the expressive performer dazzling us with wacky yet beautifully alluring costumes and make-up.

Largely written while in quarantine during the pandemic back in her native Iceland, Björk has stated that "Fossora" (which is a femininized version of the Latin word for "digger") is a "mushroom album", referring to the new collection as more warm and earthy, far removed from the electro-based dreamscape from her 2017 album, "Utopia", as she copes with transition, with the fifty-six year old artist dealing with the recent loss of her mother and her children growing up and leaving the nest.

FOCUS ON: BJORK

One thing that is safe to say about Bjork: people are certainly not ambivalent about her music. Either you feel that she is a talented artist with a unique dulcet vocal or that she is someone who is just making a lot of irritating noises. I am of the former point of view and I just love her special and very different approach to making music.

She has taken all of the many musical influences that she has been exposed to in her life and combined them all to create her own individual sound  Her voice expresses so much emotion and can go from a small yelp to a wailing scream. Bjork is unafraid to experiment with her songs or with her image which she is constantly surprising her audience with a strange and unexpected twist in her look.

Bjork Guomundsdottir was born and raised in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1965. As a child, she studied classical piano in school. A teacher sent a recording of Bjork playing to, at the time, the only radio station in Iceland. After hearing it, a record company offered Bjork a recording contract and at the age of eleven, her first album was released in 1977.

She performed in a variety of different bands as a teenager which included a punk band called, Spit and Snot. In 1984, Bjork joined the band, KUKL, which means "witch" in Icelandic, that was made up of musicians who had also been in many other groups. The band included Einar Melax on keyboards, Einar Benediktsson on vocals/trumpet and Siggi Baldursson on drums. By 1986, KUKL evolved in to The Sugarcubes which added bass player, Bragi Olafsson and Bjork's then-husband, Thor Eldon on guitar.

The Sugarcubes released their first album, "Life's Too Good" in 1988. The album was an international success which helped put the Iceland music scene on the map. Thor divorced Bjork and married Magga Ornolfsdottir who joined the band to play keyboards after Einar Melax left the group in 1989. The Sugarcubes went on to record a total of three highly regarded and influential albums before they disbanded in 1992 but all have remained friends and are all still involved in the management of their record label, Smekkleysa ("bad taste" in Icelandic).

Bjork headed to London to begin work on a solo career. She met with Nellee Hooper, who had produced such artists as Massive Attack, Soul II Soul and Sinead O'Connor, and together they completed the album, "Debut" in 1993. Although, this was far from her first musical endeavor, the title was to signify the start of something new. The sound of this record was a big departure from her work with The Sugarcubes which uses house, trip-hop and even some jazz arrangements for some of the songs. The album was a huge critical and commercial success that included the hit songs, "Venus As A Boy (LP Version)" and "Big Time Sensuality (LP Version)".

In 1999, the director, Lars von Trier asked Bjork to write the musical score for his upcoming film, "Dancer in the Dark (New Line Platinum Series)". It is a musical drama about an immigrant worker trying to save up money to pay for an operation for her son to prevent him from going blind. Mr. von Trier soon asked Bjork if she would play the lead because he was convinced that only the composer of the songs could properly play the part. She was hesitant but soon agreed and co-starred along with French acting icon, Catherine Deneuve.

The film premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Palme d'or and Bjork received the award for Best Actress. The music from the film was released on the soundtrack, "Selmasongs: Music From The Motion Picture "Dancer In The Dark"`" and the song, "I've Seen It All" was nominated for an Academy Award. Bjork performed the song on the 2001 award telecast wearing the infamous, "swan dress" which got her more attention than the actual performance. Despite the success of her first film, Bjork stated that the filming was too physically difficult and emotionally draining and that she would never do another major role.

Bjork is currently involved with performance artist, Matthew Barney and they have a daughter, Isadora. She also has a son, Sindri that she had with ex-husband, Thor Eldron.

She has released seven albums to date and has sold over fifteen million CDs during her career. She is also well known for her creatively innovative and sometime, controversial music videos. She collaborated early with a couple of directors who went on to later have successful film careers. Spike Jonze, who directed Bjork's 1995 video, "It's Oh So Quiet" has made the films, "Being John Malkovich" (1999) and "Where the Wild Things Are" (2009) and Michel Gondry who directed.several of her videos went on to make, "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Widescreen Edition)" (2004) and "The Science of Sleep" (2006) which Mr. Gondry offered Bjork the female lead but she declined.

Bjork can be strange, temperamental and complicated but that's what makes her such a compelling and fascinating artist. I look forward to being confused, enchanted, and pleasantly surprised by whatever new musical direction she decides to take on next.

Here are a few of my favorite songs from this performer:

Play Dead
Big Time Sensuality
Venus As A Boy
Army Of Me

And here is the very strange but visually stunning video for "Human Behavior (LPVersion)" that was directed by Michel Gondry, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Music Video-Short Form: